Downtown vs. suburb: it’s a low-simmering culture war. Who-lives-where seems to matter so much, even if it’s difficult to tell who’s-from-where sometimes. Are we that unlike each other? And why are we arbitrarily creating divisions in the city we live in?

Let’s look at where we live. Downtown streets are celebrated, and rightfully so. The extended, interesting sidewalk strips in Toronto are the envy of even the great cities. But just as inner Toronto is blessed with those versatile retail blocks used by waves of entrepreneurs, our inner and outer suburbs have the ubiquitous strip mall, a place where Canadian dreams can be made.

Take a trip to Eglinton Ave. in Scarborough. Head past the Golden Mile, where the big-box stores that give the suburbs a bad rap sprawl out. Look for the plazas that straddle both sides of the street east of Birchmount Rd.

A few have names, like Liberty Plaza, but those are almost irrelevant: it’s just the plaza, like a block downtown is just a block. No names, but still a destination.

There are a few recognizable chains in these strip malls, like H&R Block and banks, and familiar institutions, like a Toronto Public Library branch. But the rest are independent retailers selling just about everything: silks, jewelry, haircuts, passport photos, cheeseburgers, glasses, flowers and books. There are butcher shops, travel agents, music schools, pharmacies, Sri Lankan restaurants, bakeries, wool shops, barbers, Irish pubs, British pubs and Caribbean pubs.

If these blocks were downtown, they would be beloved stretches. People would flock to them and they would be constantly touted in the media, but because they’re behind a few rows of parking, they’re dismissed as just another boring part of the suburbs.

Watch how people use the strip malls. Some people drive to them, but a lot also have to walk from neighbouring houses and apartment buildings. Despite the fact that they were designed for the car, our postwar suburbs have a lot of people who don’t own cars, so they get to their strip malls the way people downtown do: on foot.

Yet it’s heresy to suggest that a strip mall is a place where Canadian dreams are made. Former mayor Mel Lastman once said, “Strip plazas have got to go. These things are a holy mess. Their time is over.” It’s a sentiment shared by many.

The mess, however, is the kind of organic urbanism Jane Jacobs revered, and which downtowns used to be famous for.

Now the rent is often so prohibitive downtown that the landscape is dominated by Starbucks cafes and other big businesses. In the suburbs, rents are cheaper, so space is affordable to people with little start up capital.

The strip malls have become the places where mom and pop stores can open. They’re what we call “economic incubators” in other sectors, such as technology and fashion, but those are more sexy and better funded.

Worse, in Toronto we all trade on the reputation afforded to us by these strip malls and surrounding areas. We’re proud of being one of the most multicultural places on earth, but this diversity happens more in the suburbs than downtown.

So why do we have this antipathy? It’s curious because when you get farther away from the GTA, we all say we’re just from Toronto. Nobody lets on to our neighbourhood vs. neighbourhood differences.

There have even been calls to de-amalgamate Toronto. A curious proposition when you think about how far people will go to convince Quebec to stay in Canada. Keep the country together but split the city? It’s self-defeating.

In a time when cities are becoming more and more important, it’s foolish to divide Toronto — or Toronto and the GTA. Great cities are places where economic and cultural elements percolate together and unplanned things happen. More ingredients mean more possibilities.

This doesn’t mean we have to go out to eat in the suburbs more or that people in North York should buy groceries on College St. But we should focus on what we all have in common, like how strip malls and downtown streets work, rather than the differences and made-up barriers.

This is a version of Shawn Micallef’s presentation in today’s TEDx Toronto conference. To watch the full presentation, visit tedxtoronto.com.

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